11 Months

For some reason she was afraid of the grass today.  She got upset and refused to put her left foot down the entire time.  So funny!

This little girl brings our home so much joy and laughter!  These months are flying by.  There are so many signs that we are losing the baby phase and gaining a toddler...

Some highlights of what our little princess has been up to:

• She's "Hannibal" -  She hit a massive growth spurt and eats everything in sight. No lie - in one sitting she ate a whole banana, whole avocado, several spoonfuls of corn, and several spoonfuls of guacamole. She was begging "muh muh" the whole time. To our complete joy, she is not picky whatsoever!
• She now walks while pushing her little car/walker thingie.
• Hannah LOVES animals. She really enjoys the Baby Noah video from Baby Einsteins and squeals with delight the whole time. Can't wait to take her to the zoo next month!
• Got a 4th tooth.
• She has a crazy baby doll obsession!  She holds them, pats them (more like beatings), and coos to them.  Such a contrast from Jackson who never cared about babies ones bit!  There is a HUGE ugly babydoll at the school where we have church. She is obsessed with it.  This doll is bigger than her, yet she insists on holding it and snuggling it.  Everyone does a double-take when they see us carting her around with mega-baby.
• She points at everything.  Especially when looking at books.
• Loves to put objects inside of other objects.  Jackson is using this to his advantage and teaching her to pick up toys so he doesn't have to.
• She dances to any and all music.
• Hannah still stands at the foot of the steps all the time, but she hasn't figured out how to hike up a leg and climb them.  A blessing for now...

snuggles

Every morning when Jackson finally meanders downstairs after awakening, Hannah is waiting for him with grins, squeals, and a giant snuggle.  He is so good to basically let her maul him with love!  She's not above licking his shirt, pulling his hair, poking his eye, and always gives a good smack love pat or two on the head.  It's all in the name of love to her.

Marriage

Mike is officiating several weddings this spring. While he was gone to one last weekend Jackson asked about his whereabouts. When I told him he was at a wedding, Jackson said, "Oh no! Daddy can't marry anybody but YOU, mom!". So sweet. After I explained that he was just watching 2 people get married, he calmed down.

Then, he started to tell me about when he gets to be a dad [translation: older] that he will get married someday too. And, that I could come and visit him lots. I asked him about what kind of girl he thought he might marry. His response - "Oh, I don't know. I just want you to pick someone for me." Ha!

You betcha I'm hanging on to that quote!

Camping...Making Memories

The Baby Jail

grill master

We've been talking with our friends, the Wells, about camping for 3 years now... but it never seemed to be the right time. So seeing that the weekend was going to be beautiful, we jumped at the chance. Four other familes (Suttons, Emorys, Walters, & Brueggemans) joined in on the fun too!

Jackson was beside himself with anticipation all week. I had no idea what to expect with taking my 10.5 month old camping. It required taking 1/2 of our house with us for just one night out!


One thing I had forgotten.... Camping = voluntary sleep deprivation. Hannah and Jackson stirred around quite a bit, but stayed quiet. At 4:30AM she woke us up saying "Dada! Hi-eeee!!!". Thankfully, we were able to get her back to sleep! Jackson's first words at daylight were "that was the longest night EVER!".


Other than the lack of great sleep, we had a wonderful time. :) Highlights according to Jack were: jumping on the air mattress with his buddies, fishing, eating s'mores, swimming with Ty in their clothes, catching bugs and frogs, throwing rocks and things into the lake, and peeing on trees (sorry to gross ya out there).

He's already asking to go again. Hopefully we can make this experience happen more often!

[jackson has decided that getting his picture taken is something to avoid at all costs... if any of you that went got a good pics of my family, please send them to me!]

Verbal Explosion

Hannah has really taken off with some verbal skills in the last 2 weeks. In addition to Daisy ("dayz dayz"), she now says mama, dada, Jack Jack ("jaht jaht"), uh-oh, more ("muh! muh!"), baby ("day-dee"), and that ("dat").

She watches my mouth so closely when I'm telling her a new word and seems to study me. I have been doing some sign language for more and finish for a while now. She will still sign finish, but refuses to sign more now that she figured out how to say it. One of Hannah's favorite things is to go through a book and me label all the things in it.

So true the difference between a girl and a boy!

Happy Tax Day. Here's a picture of our little tax deduction...

ready or not

My mother-in-law mentioned this the other day, and I whole-heartedly agree -- Jackson is rapidly changing into a big school kid. In the last 2 months he has grown taller and his once stocky physique has become quite long and slender. He's got the Windley legs now! And, there is a maturity in his demeanor and speech that is hard to describe.

I caught him taking a little rest.

He is really into building things. Legos and K'nex are the favorites and they are constantly all over his room. Also a hit right now is ANYTHING Star Wars. Cousin David loaned us a bunch of The Clone Wars DVDs and that is all I hear about! He knows more about droids and space ships than I ever have. We discovered a whole Star Wars section of early reader books at the library and he is in heaven!

He's been reading some of the early reader books to us. It's odd to go from being the reader to being the listener. We are so proud of him.

We should find out any day about what track he will be for kindergarten. The parent orientation is next month. He's definitely ready. The question is... am I ready?

Easter weekend

Jackson as "Bubbafet" (from Star Wars) -- complete with jet pack. His own design.

A couple of attempts at a shot with both kids before church. (At 8AM).

Church was awesome! "Traditional" lunch afterwards at Salsa Fresh with some church friends. And afterwards, Hannah was much more interested in crawling away than looking cute for a picture. Jackson tried to hold her down!

getting ready for Easter

Jackson has been anxiously waiting to hunt for eggs. We missed the neighborhood egg hunt due to sickness, but made the community one today. We got Hannah her own basket, and Jackson decided to give her all of his eggs that were pink, purple, or yellow. So sweet!

Later today and tomorrow we are dying eggs with daddy, making Resurrection Rolls, and some jello eggs too. Jackson has been a huge help to me in getting ready for church on Sunday by stuffing and counting eggs for the egg hunt there.

All of this is fun, but the most important preparation for Easter is the one we do in our hearts. Jackson understands even more about Jesus' death and resurrection and can tell me the story all by himself. He loves to do the Resurrection Eggs.

Praying that you all can pause and reflect on the most amazing gift of love God could offer you - the gift of His Son. May his love be ALIVE in you this Easter and always!